Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Is Obama Using Anti-Gun Spambots?

Texas Congressman Steve Stockman has blown the whistle on President Obama’s anti-gun Twitter campaign. Stockman says that hardly any of Obama’s anti-gun tweets come from actual human beings, while most are computer-generated spam:

“Obama’s anti-gun campaign is a fraud,” Stockman said. …

Stockman said that in response to Obama’s call for people to tweet their congressman in support of gun control legislation, he received just 16 tweets. But he said all of these messages were identical, and that a closer look at them revealed that only six were from real people.

“The other 10 are fake, computer-generated spambots,” his office said in a press release. As evidence, he said these 10 tweets use default graphics and names, and have not engaged in any interaction with other people. Two of the tweets were sent at nearly the same time, and both follow just one person: Brad Schenck, Obama’s former digital strategist.

I like Stockman’s concluding snark:

Stockman said Obama’s anti-gun activists “are trying to defraud Congress using the same scam that sells ‘male enhancement pills.’”Still, I guess it makes sense: the Democrats like to use fake voters, so why not fake tweeters?Image courtesy of Shutterstock.